Helen Mirren Reflects on the Beautiful Way She Handled Sexism as a Young Actress

Do you find that your figure hinders you in your pursuit of being a successful, serious actress? That's a real question that Dame Helen Mirren, now an Oscar winner, was asked by English journalist Michael Parkinson, the Charlie Rose of his time, in a 1975 interview. Mirren waxed poetic about that interview with journalist Tina Brown onstage at Brown's Women in the World Summit today in New York City. First, Brown played the clip: Parkinson: "Do you find that your figure...hinders you?" Mirren: "Because serious actresses can't have big bosoms, is that what you mean?" Parkinson: "I think that they might sort of detract from the performance." Mirren: "I can't think that can necessarily be true. I mean, what a crummy performance if people are obsessed with the size of your bosom or anything else?" Brown said that Mirren handled the question "so well and wittily." And I couldn't agree more. Reflecting upon the interview yesterday, 40 years later, Mirren said: "I was amazed at myself. It was the first talk-show chat show I'd ever done. I was so nervous before. My heart was pounding. I felt ill. Looking at it, I think, wow, I wasn't too bad. It was

Do you find that your figure hinders you in your pursuit of being a successful, serious actress? That's a real question that Dame Helen Mirren, now an Oscar winner, was asked by English journalist Michael Parkinson, the Charlie Rose of his time, in a 1975 interview. Mirren waxed poetic about that interview with journalist Tina Brown onstage at Brown's Women in the World Summit today in New York City. First, Brown played the clip:

Parkinson: "Do you find that your figure...hinders you?"

Mirren: "Because serious actresses can't have big bosoms, is that what you mean?"

Parkinson: "I think that they might sort of detract from the performance."

Mirren: "I can't think that can necessarily be true. I mean, what a crummy performance if people are obsessed with the size of your bosom or anything else?"

Brown said that Mirren handled the question "so well and wittily." And I couldn't agree more. Reflecting upon the interview yesterday, 40 years later, Mirren said: "I was amazed at myself. It was the first talk-show chat show I'd ever done. I was so nervous before. My heart was pounding. I felt ill. Looking at it, I think, wow, I wasn't too bad. It was OK." While times have changed, Mirren pointed out that today you still get a version of that type of sexism. "The worst version of that, honestly," she says, "is often being interviewed by female journalists who insist on going on and on about plastic surgery."

Breasts, boob jobs—journalists, we can do better with our questions. And Brown did. Here, a few other must-read moments from Brown's interview with Mirren:

On why men rule the box office: "The main driving force is still the 18- to 25-year-olds, and I think it's very interesting, I read somewhere that when a young couple goes out on a date, the boy won't go to see the movie the girl wants to see, but the girl will go to see the movie the boy wants to see, which is why [men] drive the box office, which is why the Bruce Willises of the world or Brad Pitts or whoever get far more money that the female [stars] because it's driven by that male box office."

On why it's important to get women in political office: "I've always said how incredibly important Margaret Thatcher was—because although I didn't agree with her politics—incredible role model as a little three-year-old girl who says, "Mummy, who's that?" That's the Prime Minister of England, and bonk, into that three-year-old mind, comes the understanding that she could become the Prime Minister of England. It's so incredibly important. So, go, Hillary [Clinton]!"

On a very important lesson we need to teach our daughters: "The most important thing we need to teach our daughters is to gain financial independence."